Living in fear
Imre’s life has been ruined by an obsessive stalker…
When Imre Marton gets in from his job as a bus driver, he locks his front door and closes the curtains, before taking off his stab-proof vest.
‘It’s uncomfortable but it’s better than pulling a knife out of me,’ he says.
Imre once enjoyed life, happily settled with his girlfriend. But then Charlie Howells, a stranger, became obsessed with him and stalked him for four years until he lost everything.
She bombarded him with texts and notes, refused to get off his bus and followed him everywhere.
‘She told me if I wasn’t going to be with her, she would kill me,’ he recalls.
After 100 reports of stalking, Howells was finally sentenced to two years in prison, but was released after four months.
And police believe she’s plotting with her former cellmate to stab Imre, so he’s been moved to a safe house.
Imre’s case is one of several dealt with by the stalking advocacy charity Paladin, and documentary Stalkers also follows Carly, who’s being stalked by her boyfriend’s ex, Poppy Carter.
Poppy harasses her over social media, has vandalised Carly’s cars, and recently sent her a dead mouse.
‘I can’t have a girlfriend or start a family,’ continues Imre. ‘One day she’ll be out and what is she going to do?’